It was the first-grade lunch hour, and I had decided to deal with the dreaded Swiss steak sandwich in my lunch box by gulping it down in four bites, followed by a chocolate milk chaser.

When the inevitable stomach ache hit, Sister Michael Catherine rushed me out to the crossing guard, who flagged down a shiny red Philadelphia police van.

The officers took one look at my ominously green face and then at their equally shiny police uniforms and decided to toss me onto a wooden bench in the enclosed back of the van, where they slammed the door behind me for the solitary ride home.

Whatever horrors they hoped to avoid by quarantining me in the back, however, were nothing compared to the tongue-lashings they received from every housewife on our block when they unceremoniously deposited me at the curb.

Forty years later, new Asbury Park Police Director L. Louis Jordan - who frequently sports a "Children First" lapel pin - is taking a different tack with area kids.

Jordan, who joined the city department in May, is setting up a Police Athletic League (PAL) chapter in Asbury Park to engage 8 to 24-year-olds in recreational and educational activities designed to prevent juvenile crime. And he is welcoming children as young as 11 into our Police Explorer Post.

He also meets monthly with teenage members of Prevention First's Intercity Roundtable of Youth to discuss issues they have in Asbury Park.

"Our goal is to hear what they say and bring it to the powers that be," Jordan said. "And, trust me, there's no topics they don't deal with."

Jordan is in negotiations with the city's Board of Education to take over the Dorothy McNish Computer Center near Bangs and Prospect Avenues, and plans to use it as a center for community policing, his new PAL program, and the department's Youth Services Bureau.

The center is adjacent to the middle school and a grade school, and will offer the Police Department an increased ability to network with city students, school administrators, clergy members, business owners, and residents.

And what about the quality of life for city adults? Jordan is taking a no-nonsense approach to crime in the city, targeting crime-infested buildings, flooding problem areas with police units, and requiring police captains and lieutenants to learn their areas firsthand by walking foot patrols.

And every Monday through Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m., he and other Police Department personnel open their office doors to any individual with a question or concern.

His most effective innovation, however, was the establishment of weekly COMSTAT meetings that bring together city police and code enforcement officers with members of the sheriff's office, prosecutor's office, FBI, state probation office, state parole office, the Fort Monmouth CID (Criminal Investigative Detectives), and city schools.

Run with a military precision that speaks to Jordan's history as an army drill sergeant, the meetings emphasize decision-making based on computer-generated statistics (hence the "COMSTAT" name) and ensure that "everyone is actually talking to one another".

At a recent Friday afternoon meeting, over 40 individual reports were given on topics ranging from crime patterns, traffic safety, and quality of life to network administration, police training, and vehicle maintenance.

And neighboring communities are taking note. Although Newark was the nearest COMSTAT municipality when Jordan brought the system to Asbury Park, law enforcement agencies in Howell Township, Freehold Township, Freehold Borough, Fair Haven, Long Branch, and the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office are using Jordan's approach as a model for their own COMSTAT programs.

Are these efforts paying off? Apparently so. Since January 1, 2002, overall crime in Asbury Park is down an encouraging 10 percent, and violent crime is down 11 percent, over the same period last year.

And only 17 of the 50-plus "hot spots" that Jordan identified in the city are now active, thanks to on-going cooperation between the Police Department, Fire Department, and Code Enforcement.

Still, we've got a long way to go. Asbury Park's Police Department is seriously overcrowded and equipment is often antiquated or nonexistent.

And, whereas national standards recommend that a police officer should spend 40 minutes of every hour on patrol or interacting with the public and only 20 minutes answering calls, these figures are almost reversed in Asbury Park, according to statistics tracked by Sergeant Michael Jacobs.

Meeting the national standard would involve hiring and equipping 25 new police officers at a time when federal and state grants have essentially disappeared - an additional $8 million annual expense that the city (and city taxpayers) can ill afford right now.

Indeed, in the next few weeks we'll be discussing how to wring additional moneys out of our 2003 revenues in order to send as many new candidates as possible to the police academy training program in January.

To help meet the challenge, Jordan is establishing a Citizens Police Academy to train civilian volunteers to participate in a COP (Citizens on Patrol) program, similar to the successful one in Neptune Township. The 12-week training program will run once a week, from 6 to 8 p.m., starting in January, and participants must be at least 21 years old.

Graduates will then patrol the streets in their own cars, equipped with a yellow rotating light, identification sign, and COP jacket, and will serve as additional eyes and ears for the police.

Interested in learning more? Contact Captain Mike Ham at 732-774-1300.

As for me, my early adventure in a police paddy wagon actually paid off. Not only was I the envy of my friends and the darling of every local parent, but mom never packed another Swiss steak sandwich in my lunch box again.

I owe those officers more than they'll ever know.